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# Cairo Policy Journal Delves Into Art and Politics
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/cairo-policy-journal-delves-into-art-and-politics/
- Published: 2014-07-22T01:08:54.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:33:08.000Z
- Description: The summer issue of the Cairo Review of Global Affairs mingles various aspects of the political ferment in the Middle East with the world of art and aesthetics.
- Author: Mostafa Heddaya
- Tags: Opinion, David Joselit, Townhouse Gallery, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:03 (2014, 2015, part 1)

![Artist Ganzeer working in Cairo (still via Ganzeer/Vimeo)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/07/ganzeer-cairo-640.jpg)

Artist Ganzeer working in Cairo (still via Ganzeer/Vimeo)

The [summer issue](http://www.aucegypt.edu/GAPP/CairoReview/Pages/intheJournal.aspx?issid=15&ref=hyperallergic.com) of the *Cairo Review of Global Affairs* mingles various aspects of the political ferment in the so-called Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region with the world of art and aesthetics. Though the quarterly journal, published by the American University in Cairo, typically tackles more policy-oriented fare, the issue is compelling, and features a balanced selection of contributions ranging from a sedate and comprehensive essay by David Joselit on art’s role in (civil) society to a manifesto from the outspoken Egyptian artist [Ganzeer](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/arts/design/ganzeer-takes-protest-art-beyond-egypt.html?ref=hyperallergic.com). (Rounding things out is a forgettable interview with Ai Weiwei. Sample question: *When did your work become so political?*) That aside, here’s a rundown of some highlights:

[![cr14 cover for web](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/07/cr14-cover-for-web.png)](http://www.aucegypt.edu/GAPP/CairoReview/Pages/intheJournal.aspx?issid=15&ref=hyperallergic.com)

Joselit’s essay [endeavors](http://www.aucegypt.edu/GAPP/CairoReview/Pages/articleDetails.aspx?aid=614&ref=hyperallergic.com) “to consider the ideological effects of art *in general*” (emphasis his), in particular its role in the formation of civil societies and other political realities in the Arab Gulf. In a similar vein, Partha Mitter [considers](utter%20newness of the situation has given rise to unease, creating a growing sense of crisis and uncertainty.) what the expansion of the art world’s periphery — which for him means superstar curators who “cast their nets far and wide,” resulting in shows like the [Ibrahim El Salahi retrospective](http://hyperallergic.com/81670/two-pioneers-of-arab-abstraction-side-by-side/) at the Tate Modern last year — means, and what to make of this “unease.”

Nadia Radwan [delivers](http://www.aucegypt.edu/gapp/cairoreview/Pages/articleDetails.aspx?aid=617&ref=hyperallergic.com) an aesthetic history of Egypt from the nineteenth century, where European art and architecture prevailed (down to public sculpture commissioned from French Orientalists) through the seminal modernist Mahmoud Moukhtar up through the “[blue bra girl](http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2011/12/21/144098384/the-girl-in-the-blue-bra?ref=hyperallergic.com)” immortalized in that iconic image of state brutality from Tahrir Square. Ganzeer takes things up where Radwan leaves off, chronologically, [advocating for and identifying](http://www.aucegypt.edu/gapp/cairoreview/Pages/articleDetails.aspx?aid=618&ref=hyperallergic.com) the “rise of Concept Pop,” which he claims to be a new strain of politically engaged work dealing with mass images.

Though Ganzeer is right to single out Huda Lutfi’s excellent [December 2013 solo show](http://www.thetownhousegallery.com/exhibitions/past/cutandpaste?ref=hyperallergic.com) at Townhouse Gallery in Cairo, which I had a chance to see right before it closed, he would have done well to acknowledge the extensive lineage of conceptually-oriented, Pop-inflected work, ranging from Nam June Paik and Thomas Bayrle to efforts like the [*Sinister Pop*](http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/SinisterPop?ref=hyperallergic.com)exhibition at the Whitney in 2012\. An admonishment against a vague straw-man conception of Duchampian art-for-art’s sake having “no place in Egypt’s revolutionary climate” is also rather troubling.

Finally, Joobin Bekhrad [takes stock](http://www.aucegypt.edu/GAPP/CairoReview/Pages/articleDetails.aspx?aid=616&ref=hyperallergic.com) of the contemporary art scene in Tehran and Iran at large, finding that “an unmistakable atmosphere of hope is present” despite the grim political reality.